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Nature inspires Steven Rodrig's circuit-board sculptures

A businessman from New Jersey has built a series of intricate sculptures based on the natural world from reclaimed printed circuit boards.

Steven Rodrig got hooked on constructing the unusual artwork over two years ago, and has racked up an impressive collection of the green-hued sculptures ever since. "I am exposed to PCBs as part of my job [as director of operations at a Chinese manufacturers] and came across a particularly beautiful one," Rodrig says, explaining the origins of his unlikely choice of medium. "Its design was almost organic. At that moment I knew that this PCB should be part of an organic art form and not just hidden in a machine. I knew that with a bit of imagination and the right PCBs, any organic form could be made from these inorganic pieces."

Putting his theory to the test, Rodrig built a sea turtle mid-swim, a spider complete with web, a dragonfly, a hovering hummingbird and even a roach motel -- roach included. To get materials, he resorted to rooting through garbage and even pleaded with friends to part with their old electronics. The ends justify the means -- perfectly symmetrical designs that defy the awkward, blunt nature of their make-up.

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Rodrig sees everything organic in the world as having a PCB counterpart, and his job as mediator is to uncover it. He puts his vision down on paper, turning the plant, animal or insect into a sharp, straight-lined design (PCBs don't bend much). "The true test comes when I start to cut them," says Rodrig. "Not all PCBs are the same, some are hard to cut and others will break if they are not cut correctly. Refinement of the concept is a constant when the piece is being put together."

It can take anywhere from a few weeks to several months to perfect the finish article. Gathering the right material to work with is the main reason for delay, turning creativity into a waiting game: "Unlike a painting where I would know what colours I would use, I don't necessarily know what PCBs are available at the time of the creation."

Inspiration can come from the most mundane moments. Rodrig was making breakfast for his son when he broke an egg and, on seeing the yolk and white come out, was struck by the relationship between organic and manmade DNA: "The egg had data in it, it was organic data. So what if I used PCBs as a substitute for the organic data?"

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That's exactly what he says that he's done in his latest piece,

Attempt At Transferring Data Into The Organic World V.9. "The challenge was how to get PCBs into the egg, it took me seven tries to get it right. I thought I would have gone through two dozen at least..."

You can see this work in progress in the below gallery, along with a collection of some of Rodrig's best pieces.